Carrier route record
OHCLE→DCA
PSA Airlines · Cleveland to Washington
- Flights
- 1,403
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 87%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with PSA Airlines.
PSA on CLE to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 9.1% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a D− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,403 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so PSA on CLE to DCA runs 13 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 133 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
64.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,274 completed flights
Avg delay
108 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
9.05%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
63.8%
Every carrier on CLE to DCA, 1,605 flights
These figures cover 1,403 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 17.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
PSA against every carrier on CLE to DCA
PSA flew 1,403 of the 1,605 flights on CLE to DCA, most of the route. Its 64.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 63.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 89.1% to Envoy at 53.4%. Three of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 46 | 89.1% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 7 | 85.7% | 17 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines (this page) | 1,403 | 64.0% | 108 min | 9.05% | D− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 149 | 53.4% | 61 min | 2.01% | F |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When PSA runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 43 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am330 flights81.4%
- 8am–11am269 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm107 flights63.7%
- 2pm–5pm279 flights54.1%
- 5pm–8pm267 flights48.3%
- 8pm–5am151 flights38.4%
Scale runs 30% to 85%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 38.4% on time, against 81.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 330 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
PSA on CLE to DCA through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 78.6% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. June was the busiest month here, with 133 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 75.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 55.8%, a spread of 19 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late PSA on CLE to DCA runs when it is late
PSA on CLE to DCA often beats the schedule: 357 of 1,274 completed flights, 28%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 459 late arrivals split 123 under half an hour, 114 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 222 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early357 flights28.0%
- Within 15 min458 flights35.9%
- 15–29 min late123 flights9.7%
- 30–59 min late114 flights8.9%
- 1–2 hours late117 flights9.2%
- 2+ hours late105 flights8.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,274 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 382 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 44 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 121 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at DCA.
The worst days
Worst days for PSA on CLE to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 8 February 2026, 31 hours 23 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 8 February 2026 | 31 hours 23 minutes | Carrier |
| 14 December 2025 | 20 hours 44 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 2 March 2026 | 20 hours 40 minutes | Carrier |
| 18 May 2026 | 20 hours | Carrier |
| 3 October 2025 | 17 hours 28 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why PSA runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 49,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 49,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 49,375 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 81.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 9.05%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twelve cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
17.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 310 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 61.9% on time across 1,402 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,403 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking PSA on CLE to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 9.05% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,274 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLE to DCA, every carrier
- PSA on DCA to CLE, the return leg
- Envoy Air on CLE to DCA53.4%
- PSA Airlines network-wide record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.